El uso de indicadores de gestión en el ámbito público se ha extendido en las últimas décadas con el objetivo de valorar la actuación de las agencias públicas y contribuir a mejorar su funcionamiento y la eficiencia con que éstas operan. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las características que debe reunir un sistema de indicadores y los principales problemas que pueden derivarse de su utilización en el ámbito público. Para ello se destacan algunas particularidades del sector público que plantean problemas específicos a la hora de diseñar e implementar un sistema de indicadores. A continuación se discuten los objetivos que se persiguen con la introducción de un esquema de indicadores en el ámbito público, los tipos de indicadores que se emplean habitualmente y las dificultades que se derivan de su utilización en relación tanto a la información que proporcionan como a los incentivos que generan, tomando como referencia la experiencia de algunos países que han sido pioneros en la introducción de indicadores de gestión para valorar la actuación pública. In the last decades, performance indicators have often been used with the aim to assess the activities of public units and help to improve their efficiency. The objective of this paper is to analyze the characteristics that a system of public indicators should have and the main problems that may be derived from its use in the public sector. In order to do so, some peculiarities of the public sector, which are the source of specific problems when designing and implementing a system of performance indicators are described. Then, the different types of indicators and the difficulties that arise from their use in relation both with the information needed and with the incentives they give rise to are discussed.

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